Can You Help Your Struggling Learner

If your homeschooled child is struggling with more than one subject, it can leave you scratching your head. Sure, in the more traditional classroom setting, this can happen, too. But as a homeschooled mom, you want to know the reasons why your homeschooled child is struggling. The most important thing is to realize that homeschooling is the best decision you have made for your child!

As you might already know, homeschooling is meant to adapt to your child’s unique learning style. It should help them as they grow their skills, so when multiple topics start causing headaches, it’s usually a sign that something else is going on. Figuring out what’s happening is the first step toward making things better.

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Public School Trauma or Burnout

If you just removed your child from public school, they may be experiencing burnout from being in an environment that was harmful to them. Sometimes, older children are given a lot of homework by a public school teacher. They may just need some time to decompress. Consider “unschooling” for a while. What this means is you just give them a little break and let them lead the way. Consider this: Do you ever get burned out and need a long vacation from all responsibilities? 

Additionally, young children may have been in a classroom where the pace was too fast for them. In fact, they just need some extra time to learn the basic skills. They may have holes in their education. Taking some time off and then going backwards may help.

Furthermore, both younger and older children may have been bullied and have some trauma associated with the classroom. Taking some extra time to help them dissassociate learning from trauma will benefit them all the days of their lives.

Learning Difficulties is More Than Just a Hurdle

One of the most common reasons kids struggle across various subjects is underlying learning difficulties. Conditions like dyslexia, dysgraphia, or ADHD can impact how a child processes information. Some conditions are easier than others to diagnose, depending on the child’s age, but there are other factors, too. For example, dyslexia doesn’t just make reading harder. It can also affect spelling, writing, and even following instructions.

If this goes unnoticed, your child might fall behind in different subjects simply because they’re missing out on the basics. So, it could help to look into using a dyslexia checker for them, as this could potentially help identify if dyslexia is an issue. But overall, just catching it early and coming up with a plan can make a world of difference in how your child experiences learning.

Additionally, children with special needs may have difficulty learning and have educational delays. The good news is that you can teach to their level.

There’s an Importance of Learning Styles

Here’s one thing that you really need to understand, and that’s the fact that every child has different ways of learning. Yes, you read that right! Now, some kids are visual learners, others need hands-on activities, and some do best when they can listen to explanations. 

If your homeschooling approach doesn’t match up with your child’s learning style, it can lead to frustration and struggles across the board. So you’re going to have to cater to their style of learning (and it’s not a one-size-fits-all like what’s pushed in traditional classrooms).

Gaps in Foundational Knowledge

Sometimes, struggling in multiple subjects is all about missing those key building blocks. What that means is that if a child hasn’t nailed down basic arithmetic, more advanced math is going to be an uphill battle. 

The same goes for reading—if they’re still figuring out phonics, they’ll have a hard time understanding reading materials in other subjects. Thankfully, homeschooling lets you hit pause and go back to basics, and sometimes, just going back to the fundamentals can really help. As a homeschooling parent, you get to decide when you need to repeat a subject or go backward to fill in some gaps.

Your Child is Bored

As homeschool parents, we must learn to let go of our preconceived ideas about learning because we attended a traditional school or a private school. We sometimes get so hung up on teaching to their “grade level,” that we allow our child to get bored. In fact, your child may need to move up a level or have more challenging material presented to them.

Additionally, by the time our children reach high school, they will have learned about nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs over and over. After years of homeschooling, they may be struggling with curriculum that makes them relearn the same material that they already know. 

Socialization

There are a couple of reasons why socialization can impact school work. 1) You spend so much time on field trips, extra-curriculum activities, and sports that you neglect educational pursuits. OR 2) The focus is on educational pursuits without any time for learning social skills and spending time with others that your child becomes bored and lonely. Either way, finding balance between school work and social time is essential to helping your child learn and be excited about learning.

It is a good idea to make sure to include social time in your child’s education. Some ideas for this can consist of a homeschool co-op where you share teaching duties with other homeschool families, scheduling park days with family or friends with other children, or joining some local homeschooling groups.

Lack of Motivation

Some children just lack motivation. This may be due to not finding out their passion or best learning style. My oldest son loved reading, but my second son did not. I truly that he just didn’t want to learn. But I eventually found out that he would listen to lectures or books on cassette. This was a game-changer. What I perceived as a lack of motivation was not understanding how he learned best. 

The Wrong Curriculum

Sometimes, the problem isn’t with the child—it’s the curriculum. Homeschooling gives you the freedom to pick and choose what methods and materials you will use. However, not every curriculum will be a perfect fit. For example, if the material is too advanced or too packed with information, it can quickly become overwhelming, leading to struggles across several subjects. 

Many times a struggling student isn’t connecting with the educational method used in the curriculum. The best way to ensure your child will connect with the homeschool curriculum is to figure out their learning style which was mentioned above. My favorite resource to figure out learning styles is Educating the Wholehearted Child by Clay and Sally Clarkson.

So it’s worth taking a step back to see if what you’re using is actually right for your child’s current stage and interests. Ideally, simplifying lessons and allowing more interest-driven learning can make things less stressful for both of you. Teaching for your child’s unique needs will pay off in the long run.